InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Mind's Eye ❯ Obakemono ( Chapter 7 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

AN: Ehhh…. Finals week. Bleeeh. Well, I've been trying to tie in some already-established Japanese myth, but I can't find anything for flowers or much for animals… Any suggestions? I need all the help I can get!
 
Responses:
 
Silverbloodrain: Thanks! I'm glad that you like my work.
 
rin: Ah, so that's what happened to Kagome's dad! I always wondered… I imagined some sort of great conspiracy. Thanks for telling me.
 
Inu Kaiba: Thank you! And I'm REALLY sorry about the lack of updating… And thank you VERY much for the offer! That's very generous- and I certainly could use a beta. Sounds like a good idea.
 
Inu-ears: Sorry! I'll try to explain things more in the future. Sometimes I think I've explained something pretty well, and everyone's confused, and sometimes I think I'm being very clever and everyone knows exactly what's going to happen. XD I'll get it right someday!
 
ViodPheonix: Thanks very much! Again, sorry about how long it took…
 
Archerelf: Thank you! Usually takes me a few weeks to do a chapter because they're pretty long most of the time… Last one I cheated and made it fifteen pages. I usually try to do about seventeen, though… Don't feel inadequate! I'm just weird with my chapters.
 
Lostmoonchild: Yay! I thought I was getting a bit too descriptive in some parts, but I'm glad you liked it.
 
Blackartemis: Wah! I'm sorry that it takes me so long to update! Really, if I had more time, I'd write more, but… well, I don't. Which stinks. But I'm glad you like it!
 
Angel_4_life: Thank you! That's really kind of you (improvement of writing). I feel all warm and happy now. On Kagome's father's name; I spent a long time looking for something that fit, and I'm glad it works!
 
Dudekiller: Thank you! Making the reader see the story through Kagome's eyes (Part of the time) was what I was aiming for; I'm glad it worked!
 
Sabrinaw: Heh… I have a very short attention span. I'll walk into a room to get something and forget what it was. XD The party sounds good! I'll bring… chips! And guacamole!
 
Inuyasha's hun: Yeah, sorry about that. The chapter really shouldn't have taken that long… Hopefully that won't happen again!
 
Inuyasha: When I said that it wouldn't take four months, I meant it wouldn't take another four months for me to write one chapter, not the entire story. I don't think I'd make that deadline. On that note, I am updating whenever I have the chance to write and something good to add to the story. I realize that it takes a long time, and I'm sorry for the inconvenience.
 
Chibi Rouyakan: Thank you!
 
Tiamath: Thanks! I was afraid that all the little twists were getting too confusing and numerous; I'm glad that they're not becoming irritating.
 
Ganheim: Well, -for the "megalithic youkai" as you so aptly put it- maybe not so soon… A few chapters, maybe… I'll keep the slang in mind- I looked over the chapter, and I think you're right.
 
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Disclaimer: Disclaimed!
 
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The Mind's Eye
 
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Chapter Seven: Obakemono
 
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"Hm…" Kaede frowned as she thought, drumming her fingers against the wooden floor as she did so. "I don't like the sound of it," she concluded, glancing at Inuyasha. "You're sure that the flowers and box smell exactly the same?"
 
"How many times do I have to tell you, hag?" the hanyou demanded impatiently. "It was the same!"
 
"I can only conclude that someone is keeping close tabs on Kagome," she admitted. "I suggest you stay by her, just in case."
 
"Fine." He stood up abruptly and headed out, pausing shortly at the door. "Who do you think it is…?"
 
Kaede sighed. "At this point, I can only assume that someone either had good intentions by destroying the legend and sending flowers through Kagome's friends, or this…being is playing with us."
 
"Well, I'm assuming that it's some demon or other. Why the hell would it destroy the legend if it wanted to help us?" And with that, the hanyou stalked out of the house and towards the well.
 
"One never knows. There might be a good reason." A few minutes later, Kaede sat upright and exclaimed, "Ah! I forgot to tell him about the creature that was watching Sango and Shippo!"
 
And Sango had caught it, too. After a few days of being followed by something she couldn't see, the demon exterminator became fed up and decided to hunt it down. With disturbing results.
 
The thing that she'd finally caught was a humongous black bird that looked almost like a hawk, the wingspan over twelve feet in diameter. "And it didn't go down easily, either," Sango reported, a smug note in her voice as villagers began to gather and stare.
 
"The only thing is," she continued, expression troubled, "I have no idea what it is."
 
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(•. •)
(><)
 
Kagome was bored sick.
 
Her first day back at school had drawn uncomfortable whispers, awkward silences, and pity that she didn't want. She stumbled over steps, wandered into walls, and couldn't find three of her classes. Perhaps the worst was when Hojo found her about to enter the boys' restroom, thinking that it was Higuchi-sensei's classroom.
 
The only good thing that happened those last two days was that she'd been able to steadily pick up her classmates' auras, although she still couldn't tell boys from girls and old from young.
 
Souta had been surprisingly helpful. Noticing easily how depressed and frustrated his sister was, he'd gone to the library and researched Nozomi's legend, coming home jubilantly with an old, weather-beaten book by a history professor on old legends.
 
"Look!" He tapped the book with one finger. "I got something. It says 'Once upon a time there was a small village near a lake. One day, a woman named Koboshi gave birth to a little girl, who was named Nozomi. She was blind. Her mother despaired, for no one would want to marry a girl who could not see and was no help around the house, even if she was as pretty as Nozomi was.
 
Then one day a priest came upon this village. He said that he was drawn by the strong spiritual aura coming from it. He was practiced in the ways of seeing an aura, and could see it from many miles away.
 
Upon following this aura for many days, he came upon the village. In that village was the blind child, Nozomi. When he learned that she was blind and saw the way that her aura radiated with foolish abandon-'" Souta stopped. "What's he mean, 'foolish abandon'?"
 
"He probably means that anyone could see it, like demons," Mr. Higurashi speculated with a wise air.
 
"Oh." Souta resumed. "-'and the way that her aura radiated with foolish abandon, he decided to stay in the village and teach Nozomi how to see auras and hide her own. Many months passed before Nozomi was able to recognize an aura with precision and hide her own.' Hey Kagome, you're doing better than her!"
 
"Yeah," Kagome replied grumpily, "I'm not a six-year-old kid, am I?"
 
Souta sighed and went back to reading. "The monk left and went his own way, while Nozomi stayed in the village. With practice, she was soon able to see far more than the auras of people; she could sense plants and animals, too. With her eyes, nothing was out of sight."
 
Kagome heard the book close. "That's all?"
 
Souta reopened the book. "Oh wait, there's a note on the end. 'Although there was evidently more to this myth, the scroll recovered by archeologists was damaged. Officially, the conclusion of Nozomi's Legend is uncertain, however, less official versions give various endings; Nozomi found a path to heaven that no one else could see, jealous priests killed her, demons took her. Only one thing is certain, and that is that she disappeared before her tenth birthday.' That's all it says."
 
"Great," she muttered bad-temperedly, standing up and making her way to the door.
 
"Kagome?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, concerned.
 
"I'm going to my room."
 
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(•. •)
(><)
 
"Tengu."
 
Sango looked up, confused. "What did you say, Miroku?"
 
"Tengu. I think the demon you killed was a crow, a Tengu." The black-haired man wore a troubled expression as they walked through the woods towards the bone-eater's well.
 
"But," Sango protested, "I thought that tengu were smaller… Not that I've ever seen one."
 
"That's it exactly," Miroku replied. "Tengu stay in the mountains; why would one be spying on you? I've also heard that tengu are rarely seen near Fuji. Suddenly, their numbers have exploded."
 
Sango wore a grave expression. "I don't like it," she admitted. "Those golems, that bird… And then there's Nozomi. And that demon that was watching us while we were sleeping. I find it hard to believe that all of this is just a coincidence."
 
"Yes," Miroku agreed. "Kagome told us that Nozomi was struggling to contain someone."
 
"Or something," Shippo piped up. "She didn't say what it was, did she? Maybe it was that giant tengu."
 
"I wish that it was that simple," Miroku replied. "But I imagine that this demon that Nozomi was containing is beginning to break free and release its allies."
 
They'd reached the well. Shippo peered down into the darkness. "Well, what're we gonna do? Kagome and Inuyasha are on the other side."
 
Miroku smiled. "We just need to catch Inuyasha's attention. With the right thing, he'll come running." He pulled out a sutra. "If I'm correct, this will catch his attention." He dropped the scrap of paper in the well. Prudently, he stepped away from the well.
 
"Miroku?" Shippo asked. "Why are you-"
 
A sudden huge explosion rocked the clearing. As the dust cleared, Shippo stared at the well dumbly.
 
"Miroku!" Sango demanded. "Couldn't you do something a bit less... destructive next time?" She whacked him over the head with Hiraikotsu.
 
Rubbing the bump on his head gingerly, Miroku admitted, "I didn't know it'd be that strong…"
 
Several seconds later, an irate and soot-blackened Inuyasha hopped out of the smoking well, sneezing violently. "What the hell was that?" Amber eyes glared at each of them in turn.
 
"It was Miroku's fault!" Shippo said, pointing an accusatory finger. "He just threw this sutra in the well and it exploded!"
 
The hanyou rounded on the accused. "Why in all the seven hells would you do that?"
 
The monk was slightly irritated now. "Inuyasha, calm down. I was only trying to catch your attention-"
 
"A damn good way to catch my attention!"
 
Shippo frowned. "Inuyasha… is something wrong? You're acting… prickly."
 
The hanyou huffed. "You should ask Kagome, not me! She's been acting like everything's my fault! I didn't even do anything!"
 
Miroku and Sango exchanged looks.
 
"That's what you always say, Inuyasha," Shippo replied. "And it's always your fault!"
 
"But I didn't even say anything!" Inuyasha folded his arms across his chest and glared at the kitsune. "She's been like that to everyone! And she said 'Sit' so many times this morning that I left a dent in the kitchen floor."
 
Miroku frowned. Despite the hanyou's attempts to hide it behind his usual roughness, he was plainly concerned about Kagome. "Kagome is probably just getting used her condition," the monk tried to explain.
 
"She's had nearly a month for that!" Inuyasha retorted, glancing distractedly at the well.
 
"I remember that when my father died, I was fine for the first two weeks, but then… it got rough for me," Miroku admitted.
 
Inuyasha stopped pacing and listened, one ear twitching in his direction. Sango instinctively reached out, then pulled her hand back, thinking that the monk might get the wrong idea. Miroku rarely spoke of anything that was really important to him, especially when it was about his own mortality.
 
"I went about as usual, just avoiding that he was gone, even though I saw it with my own eyes. I kept thinking that he'd turn up around then next corner, smiling his usual smile. Then, one day, I just snapped. It was as if I'd suddenly woken up and realized that something irreplaceable was gone, never to return. Perhaps Kagome just realized that."
 
Sango put a hand on Miroku's shoulder. I know how you feel, Miroku. I know how it feels to lose someone so close, right in front of you, when there's nothing that you can do.
 
And then she felt his hand edging around her waist. "Miroku…!"
 
Thonk.
 
(\ /)
(•. •)
(><)
 
She was crying.
 
Inuyasha could smell the salt and hear the quiet hiccups from the moment he walked into the house, his mind troubled with giant tengu and reawakening demons.
 
Those thoughts fled his mind as soon as he realized what was going on, amber eyes going wide with surprise and mouth pursed in a tight line.
 
"Inuyasha?" Souta frowned at the hanyou from the kitchen table where he was working on homework. "Are you okay?"
 
"Fine." Slowly, the hanyou walked outside again, his mind a roaring blank of indecision. He didn't know what to do, what to say to Kagome. This was no foe he could protect her from with a sword and claws. How in all the hells could he of all people find something to say to her?
 
The hanyou sighed unhappily and hopped into the tree by her window. Taking a deep breath- she'd probably Sit him into oblivion- he tapped carefully on the window.
 
Kagome ignored him. She was sitting at her desk, hands over her mouth and bangs hanging low over her eyes. Her shaded glasses were sitting on her nightstand.
 
Taking this as a sign that it was okay for him to enter, Inuyasha cautiously opened the window and landed slightly on the carpet.
 
"…Kagome?..."
 
She flinched and turned away. "Don't you know how to knock?"
 
Inuyasha barely bit back a harsh reply, taking a deep breath and reminding himself that Kagome wasn't exactly herself right now. It wasn't hard to remember, not when the pungent smell of salt permeated the room and Kagome was huddled in her chair, hiccupping quietly.
 
"Uh… Are you okay?" Inuyasha winced. What a stupid question.
 
"No," Kagome replied, voice even but edgy. "I'm not okay. Do I look okay?"
 
The hanyou bit the inside of his cheek. This wasn't going well. He had no idea what to say now, and the silence stretched between them, broken only by Kagome's occasional sniffs.
 
Finally, Inuyasha asked, "Do you want me to leave?"
 
Kagome shook her head.
 
Hesitantly, the hanyou walked over to her bed and sat down. "Well, what's wrong?" Another stupid question
 
Kagome sighed. "At first, I was okay with not seeing things, because of this training. But it's not like seeing at all, really. There aren't colors. There aren't shapes. I just know where something is, and what it is. I miss seeing things, like the sunset, people's faces… It's frustrating. And I don't even know why I can't see! Stupid doctors."
 
"Kagome…"
 
The girl flinched in surprise when Inuyasha's hand gripped her shoulder tightly. With a sigh, she rested her head on his shoulder.
 
_|__|_
(•.•)
--( • )--
(____)
 
With her nasty cold finally gone, Kagome returned with determinedly good cheer to Sengoku Jidai.
 
"Ahh, fresh air!" There was a thump to her left as Inuyasha dumped her backpack in the meadow. "It's so nice to be back. I wonder what Sango and Miroku have learned about-"
 
Inuyasha's voice broke through sharply. "Something's wrong."
 
Kagome paused, half out of the well. The old worn wood was damp beneath her palms. "What?" With the ease of long practice, she took a deep breath and searched the area with her mind. "I don't notice anything. It all seems normal."
 
"Think, stupid," the hanyou retorted, agitation making him sharp. "There's nothing. No birds, no animals…"
 
Straining, Kagome reached further. "There's a strong demonic aura in the village." She clambered out of the well. "I don't think anyone's there, but no one's dead, either… I think. I'm still not too good at it."
 
The long grass rustled as Inuyasha grabbed Kagome and her pack as he rushed through the meadow. "Dammit…"
 
Kagome knew what he was thinking. "Inuyasha, it's not your fault. You couldn't have known."
 
"That's not it." The hanyou denied. "I was only thinking that-"
 
"It's right in front of us! Whatever it is…"
 
Inuyasha paused, then swung around and raced back in the opposite direction.
 
"What're you doing?" Kagome demanded. "It's right behind us!" She frowned as she thought. Inuyasha wasn't the sort of person to run from danger. He was more likely to throw himself in the middle of it. So what on earth was going on?
 
The hanyou stopped. "Making sure you're safe," he replied, dumping her and her backpack down the well again. "Stay there until I come back!"
 
"Wha-?" Speechless with fury, Kagome plummeted down the shaft. "I'm not baggage, you know!"
 
The hanyou turned. "Now… I can deal with you. What the hell did you do to the villagers?"
 
The large black bird shrieked as it made circles in the sky. Spiraling lower, I came to the ground and with a small popping sound, transformed. A small old man with eyes like Kanna's and a long beaky nose looked at him coldly. Inuyasha's nose twitched; he stank of corroded metal.
 
"The villagers?" His voice was harsh and gravelly. "There were none."
 
"Really?" the hanyou demanded, drawing Tetsusaiga. "Then why's there blood all over your face?"
 
The woman's expression didn't change. "There was livestock. We ate it."
 
"I meant the human blood." Inuyasha glanced up at the sky; other black shapes were spiraling down towards the clearing.
 
"Another village." Behind him, the others had landed. They stood in little disorganized clumps, unmoving. They were like puppets; none of them twitched or even blinked, and all of them wore the same monk's apparel.
 
With growing incredulity, Inuyasha looked the apparent leader in the eye and asked. "What sort of monsters are you?"
 
"We are tengu." With mechanical movements, the others surrounded him.
 
"I thought so. You were the ones following Sango around." His hands tightened around Tetsusaiga's hilt. "In that case, I won't hold back."
 
One of the old men cackled. "Good."
 
(\ /)
(•. •)
(><)
 
Naraku was furious. In fact, he'd gone from shocked to disbelieving, to angry, to enraged, to furious in a matter of minutes. Four days later, he was still furious.
 
So, naturally, Kagura was enjoying herself, a small sneer gracing her lips as she watched her creator try to regain his usual cold composure. It wasn't working, and the wind demon wasn't surprised; someone had stolen his Shikon fragment and replaced it with a very clever counterfeit. They didn't even know how long that it'd been gone. It could've been days, weeks, or even months.
 
"Kagura." Naraku's eyes darted in her direction. "Go find Kikyo. Bring her back here. I want an explanation."
 
In other words, he doesn't know what to think, she thought smugly, wordlessly walking out of the room, the tatami mats beneath her feet sighing quietly as she went. And he needs her help.
 
It was Kikyo, after all, who'd first found that the shard was a fake during another one of her casual visits that she made every now and then, simply to insult Naraku. As Kagura took off, she couldn't help the bitter twinge of jealousy. She wished that she could do that. Especially the part about insulting Naraku.
 
It wasn't long before Kagura located the temple where Kikyo was staying and the feather wheeled lower and lower in the sky. Crimson eyes roamed over the temple grounds. Kikyo was outside in a field picking herbs. The wind witch hopped off and landed elegantly, right in front of the dead priestess. "Naraku needs your help. He has no idea where the shard is."
 
"I was expecting Naraku to summon me about now," Kikyo stated. "I didn't think that one like him would be able to find even a shard half the size of his fist."
 
Kagura waited for a moment while Kikyo bent down again to pull a plant up. "So you're coming?" she prompted, fan tapping her arm with impatience.
 
Cold grey eyes glanced contemptuously at the wind witch. "You will tell Naraku that, unlike you, I am not one of his puppets at his beck and call. I have other more important business to attend to. I will come at my own time. He has no control over me." Coolly, she yanked out another plant and looked at Kagura again. "And neither do you."
 
"I'll deliver the message," the wind witch retorted waspishly. She turned and stalked off. Irritating woman. Naraku's not going to be pleased to receive the message. And he'll undoubtedly take it out on me. She sighed. Great.
 
_|__|_
(•.•)
--( • )--
(____)
 
"Miroku?"
 
Shippo clung to the monk's shoulder as large grass green eyes stared out into the forest. His tail was bushy with alarm.
 
"Shippo," Miroku reminded the kitsune, "I told you that you can't talk. The tengu might hear!" Carefully, he inched around the tree.
 
"Did you hear something? Like footsteps?"
 
Miroku frowned and whispered back, "I don't hear anything, but your hearing is better than mine, anyway-"
 
"Blood! I smell blood!" Shippo panicked. "It's coming this way!"
 
"Hey Shippo, you should really try to keep your voice down. I could hear you from the well."
 
With a small sigh of relief, Miroku stepped out from behind the tree and greeted the hanyou. "Inuyasha, it's nice to have you ba-" he stopped and stared.
 
Inuyasha was scratched and battered. He trudged forward at a painfully slow pace- there was a large gash across his calf which seemed to be the cause of the problem.
 
"Hey, why are you so beat up?" Shippo demanded shrilly. "I haven't seen you this hurt since that last encounter with Sesshoumaru when he totally-"
 
"I take it that you ran into the tengu," Miroku broke in, before Shippo could make matters worse.
 
"Yup," Inuyasha replied grimly. "I need to talk to Kaede." He passed them by and marched off. "Oh, and you should go help Kagome get out of the well. She's probably screaming her head off right now."
 
Shippo and Miroku exchanged a nervous glance.
 
"Um," Shippo said, "I think I'll go back with Inuyasha! I need to… um… talk to Kirara!" He scrambled off of Miroku's shoulder and hurried after the hanyou, nose wrinkling. "Inuyasha! You stink!"
 
"Don't blame me," he retorted sourly. "Those stupid birds are the ones who stank. Like the things in Kagome's time," he added thoughtfully. Metallic.
 
(\ /)
(•. •)
(><)
 
Kagome wasn't completely immature. She knew better than to go back through the well before Inuyasha came to get her, in her condition. She couldn't do anything blind. If there was anything she really hated, it was being helpless like this. Sure, a lot of the time Inuyasha had to come rescue her from demons, but she was only human after all. She wasn't trained to fight like Miroku and Sango, either.
 
But blind, she couldn't even run away. All she could do was stand there or trip over her own feet.
 
So she waited five minutes, fuming more about her own helplessness than the fact that Inuyasha had pushed her down the well, then returned to Sengoku Jidai.
 
"Inuyasha?" The clearing was silent. "Inuyasha!"
 
If the hanyou was there, he didn't reply.
 
Biting her lip in concentration, Kagome relaxed and let her perceptions expand. She was surrounded by dead things. She didn't know how, exactly, she could tell that they were dead. It was like there was a big, yawning hole where something should've been.
 
"One of them better not be Inuyasha," she grumbled, her senses already scrambling to find out.
 
"Inuyasha!" she tried again. As far as she could tell, none of them were him. But then again, how could she tell? "This is so frustrating!"
 
"Sorry! I'm here, Kagome!" It was Miroku's voice. "Inuyasha went ahead to where the villagers are. I'll get you out."
 
"Thanks, Miroku-sama. Could you tell me what the dead things are, though?"
 
The monk was clearly startled. "You can sense the dead? It's been less than two months. From what I've learned, it's taken even the most adept of this technique much longer."
 
Kagome shrugged indifferently. "I'd rather see, still." Her nose wrinkled at the stench of corroded metal. "So what are these things?"
 
"They are tengu," Miroku replied gravely. He glanced at Kagome. She looked rather pale and sickly- but from what Inuyasha had said about the nasty cold, that was no surprise. "They attacked several villages."
 
Kagome looked confused. "You mean crazy fanatic monks from the mountains? I was expecting some sort of horrific demon, or something. That's weird."
 
"Well, they certainly didn't look like old men to me," Miroku replied. "They were humongous black birds. We barely managed to evacuate the village in time," he admitted. Miroku paused for a moment and noticed one of the corpses. "Kagome… what was it that you said about tengu and monks?"
 
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(0.0)
(><)
 
Although it was nice to be so insulting to Naraku, Kikyo's real reason for refusing to help was completely unrelated. Another dark aura was barely visible in her perceptions, one different from- but perhaps as powerful as- Naraku's.
 
That itself concerned her little- she was already dead, after all. The only reason she persisted in staying in this world was revenge against Naraku. But the disappearance of the Shikon no Tama was another matter.
 
Although she would never admit it to him, Naraku wasn't exactly careless when it came to planning and security. The fact that someone -or something- could take the Shikon shard without Naraku having the slightest suspicion was intriguing. It could be no coincidence that the demonic aura appeared and the Shikon no Tama disappeared at the same time.
 
As the long grass rustled beneath her feet, a familiar tingling feeling caused her to sigh. "What is it now, Kagura?"
 
The wind witch appeared from behind a tree. And she didn't look very happy. "Naraku asked me to babysit," she said, snapping her fan shut.
 
"In other words, he wants to know what is so important that I am unable to help him," Kikyo stated, turning and continuing on her way. "You can tell him that if he thinks that he is worthy of possessing the Shikon no Tama, he should be able to find it on his own."
 
"Hmm. You're probably right." Kagura deftly removed a feather from her hair and took of in a strong gust of wind. If she had to follow Kikyo, she'd rather do it from a distance.
 
_|__|_
(•.•)
--( • )--
(____)
 
Kagome wasn't surprised that, on her first night back in Sengoku Jidai, she was visited in her dreams by Nozomi.
 
What surprised her was that she could vaguely see the scenery around her. She seemed to be sitting by a spring, a large white flower cupped in her hands. She lowered it into the water and watched it float towards the middle of the pool.
 
Kagome noticed that there were a lot of flowers floating in the water. Weirdo…. With a small sigh, she stepped forward and sat down next to the little girl. "… What're you doing?"
 
Nozomi didn't answer for a moment. She dropped another flower in the water, then asked, "What do you know about me, Kagome?"